HRC Joins With Nation’s Leading Pediatric Organizations on New Guide Supporting Transgender Youth

9/29/2016

Article Body

New resource provides family members,
clinicians and the public with blueprint for affirming and respecting
transgender young people.

WASHINGTON -- Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, joined with the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American College of Osteopathic
Pediatricians (ACOP), which together represent more than 66,000 pediatricians
and pediatric specialists across the country, to release Supporting and Caring for Transgender Children, a new guide for community members and allies
to ensure that transgender young people are affirmed, respected, and able to
thrive.

The resource comes at a time
of unprecedented attention on transgender identities and during a national
dialogue on the inclusion and rights of transgender students and youth.
Recently, transgender young people have too frequently found themselves targeted
by hurtful and mean-spirited debate, particularly following the passage of
North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2 law.

Supporting and Caring for
Transgender Children
explains what it means for children to be transgender, why medical experts
embrace a “gender-affirming” approach, and how community members can support
transgender children, young people and their families. Transgender advocate
Jazz Jennings, an HRC Foundation Youth Ambassador, and her family tell their story in the new
resource, which also includes quotes from parents Wayne Maines, Ofelia Barba
Navarro, and Peter Tchoyrk. In creating the guide, HRC partnered with
physicians and mental health professionals who have worked extensively with
transgender children.

“While our country continues
its national conversation around transgender equality, we must never forget
that at the center of this dialogue are real children fighting to be seen,
valued and respected,” said
Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC’s Senior Vice President for Programs, Research, and
Trainings. “This
new guide provides parents and clinicians alike with vital information in their
ongoing pursuit of doing right by all young people. Our partnership with
the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Osteopathic
Pediatricians reinforces the overwhelming medical consensus that respecting and
affirming transgender young people is not only necessary, but also potentially
lifesaving.”

As co-authors of Supporting
and Caring for Transgender Children, the AAP and ACOP are continuing their
longstanding commitment to the care and wellbeing of transgender children. In
addition to its support of the resource, the AAP is developing a policy
statement on caring for transgender youth that it plans to publish next year.

“We know more than ever
before about what transgender children need to grow up safe and healthy, and a
large part of that is being accepted, nurtured and supported in their gender
identity by their family, physicians and community,” said Karen Remley, MD,
MBA, MPH, FAAP, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the AAP.
“We hope this new guide will become a useful tool for anyone who has a
transgender child in their life.”

“The ACOP is excited to be a
part of this guide providing pediatricians, other primary care physicians,
allied health staffs, patients, families and caretakers with this vital
information for transgender youth. We
suggest all efforts ensuring transgender young people be respected and valued,”
said Carl R. Backes, DO,
FACOP, ACOP President

The guide comes in advance of
the launch of HRC’s Parents for Transgender Equality, a groundbreaking,
nationwide council of parent-advocates working to educate the country on the
lives and needs of their transgender children. Last year, HRC released the Moms for Transgender Equality video series featuring moms from across the
country telling their families’ stories. More recently, HRC unveiled the
follow up series, Dads for Transgender Equality. AAP president Benard
Dreyer penned a letter urging his colleagues
to support their transgender patients, and a group of pediatric gender experts
spoke out against stigmatizing laws and policies in a moving HRC video.

The
Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to
achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC
envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at
home, at work and in every community.

The
American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 66,000 primary care
pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical
specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants,
children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org and follow us on Twitter @AmerAcadPeds.

The
American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians (ACOP) has been in existence
since 1940, and represents 675
osteopathic pediatricians and 1,500 osteopathic medical school students through
continuing medical education opportunities, government relations and mentoring. Osteopathic
medicine is one of the fastest growing health professions, with one out of
every five medical students enrolled in a college of osteopathic medicine.The ACOP continues to grow and is dedicated to
osteopathic primary care pediatric practices. The ACOP's government relations and advocacy
efforts represent the interests of osteopathic pediatricians, as well as in
coalition with other organizations that focus on children's welfare.